Questions and Answers
by FansieFace
Summary: Fawkes had chosen him for his thoughts, which flowed in the same direction as his own, towards questions and answers and discovery.


The Phoenix was known by many names, but the one he thought of himself as was Fawkes. His chosen human, the Dumbledore, had always called him that. Fawkes had chosen him for his thoughts, which flowed in the same direction as his own, towards questions and answers and discovery. Fawkes had been through many flamings with the Dumbledore, and had become attached to the human in his way. The Dumbledore had taken care of him, brought him to a place where questions and answers and discovery were the focus of all. Many humans passed before the Phoenix, small and tall. Fawkes didn't know much about human ways, and he didn't know why the size mattered, but when tall humans came to talk to the Dumbledore, they called him something different from the small ones, and asked different types of questions. The Dumbledore always had an answer, for the tall and the small, even if the answer was a question by itself. The Dumbledore watched over Fawkes as he aged and his mind became cloudy time after time, and raised him from the ashes of old when his mind was clear and free of the distractions of before-life. Fawkes was loyal to the Dumbledore because of this. So when he heard loyal thoughts about the Dumbledore coming from humans in the question-place, he tried to send them answers to the questions they asked. When he heard many confused questions from all around, and he noticed the Dumbledore getting worried, he began to send answers he had to the girl who was fiercely loyal to the Dumbledore and to the question-place. He tried to explain to her about the great-snake, and how everything was happening, and although she didn't realize it was Fawkes giving her answers, she understood. She was small, and her two friends were also. The Phoenix was confused when her thoughts stopped reaching him, and turned to her friends to send them the answers. They understood also and found where the girl had written them. Fawkes did what he could to help them, and pushed the boy who showed so much loyalty to the Dumbledore. Fawkes was listening to his thoughts and feelings when the boy became confused and scared, and still said words of greater loyalty to the Dumbledore than he had known a human could. He could feel the boy's need, and knew what had to be done. He thought-sent his need to the Dumbledore, who nodded gravely and sent him on his way. The Phoenix fought the great-snake so that the eyes could no longer petrify, and dropped the talk-hat near the boy. Fawkes's plan was good, as he had known, and the boy pulled out the sword and killed the great-snake. He was fading, but Fawkes stopped it with his tears. He brought the boy, his friends and the tall human with dim thoughts back to the question-place, and thought his helping was finished. But year after year, the boy and his friends needed his help at the question-place. He sent them answers that they sought, answers to riddles and problems and ideas that needed choices. The boy never doubted his loyalty to the Dumbledore, and that insured that the Phoenix never doubted he should help. When the Dumbledore left the question-place, taking Fawkes with him, the Phoenix never doubted that the boy would stay loyal. And when the boy and the Dumbledore left together, he didn't doubt that they would help each other. The Dumbledore's questions always had answers, and the boy's questions were ones the Dumbledore could answer if he chose to. So when the two humans returned, and the Dumbledore was fading, and then there were confusing thoughts from many humans, and then the Dumbledore was gone, Fawkes was surprised and worried, two emotions he was not used to feeling and did not like to feel. He flew out over the green and lake around the question-place, and found the Dumbledore on the ground, broken and with no questions and answers in his thoughts, with no thoughts at all. And although Fawkes lived for questions and answers and discovery, he had never asked what loss felt like, had never reached for an answer, and he did not like this discovery. He did not like loss, he had never felt it before, because in the past, the humans he had been with had forced him to stay, or he had been free. The Dumbledore had allowed him to roam free, and Fawkes had been free while still having the company of a mind that ran with questions and answers like the Phoenix. He felt the loss of the mind and thoughts of the Dumbledore, and he expressed this loss through a song he sang out over the green and lake and the question-place. He could hear the thoughts of the humans, thinking along the same track as his song, thinking of loss and grief, but he also heard some thoughts of disloyalty. He sent his last answer to the boy he had helped so many time, told him to stay loyal to the Dumbledore and continue the discovering the Dumbledore had started, and them he left the question-place, he left the green and the lake, he left the boy. He trusted the boy's loyalty, and never doubted that the boy would finish the discovering. He trusted that the boy's loyalty to the Dumbledore would overrule any questions he might ask, and knew that loyalty to the Dumbledore would live on. That was all the answer he needed to his loss. So Fawkes flew on, away and free. He continued his discovering, his asking and answering. He was free as ever, and the only cloudiness that remained in his thoughts after every flaming was the loss that remained from the fading of the Dumbledore. It was the only cloudiness in the Phoenix, from his every new birth to his every flame, and other than that, Fawkes was free and clear.

 **This is my first Harry Potter fanfic, so to all you Potterheads, of which I am one and proud of it, sorry if this doesn't fit your ideas. This was floating around my head all day and needed to be written.**


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